Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut hits theaters this weekend and it tackles a subject one might not expect from the former child star - pornography. Don Jon centers on a man addicted to porn, but has finally met the real woman of his dreams. Gordon-Levitt recently spoke about the film and its subject in interviews for the film.
“I wanted to talk about how media influenced people’s expectations,” Gordon-Levitt told Entertainment Weekly. In the film, his character is obsessed with porn, while his girlfriend, played by Scarlett Johansson, is obsessed with Hollywood rom-coms. “Pornography is a huge, huge part of our media culture. … Whether it’s rated X or approved by the FCC to sell Doritos, the message is the same,” he told EW.
Gordon-Levitt made similar comments to Fox News when asked why this subject attracted him. He said he was interested in how people will often treat one another as objects instead of people and that some think that their lives should be like TV shows or movies.
“Real life is actually a lot more beautiful and rich with detail and nuance but you'll miss it if you're constantly comparing your real life to fantasies,” the former 3rd Rock from the Sun star explained. “So that's why I thought a story about a young man who watches too much pornography going out with a young woman who watches too many romantic Hollywood movies would be sort of a funny way to ask these questions.”
Gordon-Levitt also explained that he learned a lot from working with directors like Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception). “What’s interesting about being a director [is]… you think of a filmmaker as someone who dreams up a movie and then it comes to life, and that is true to a degree, but there's also a lot of mundane logistical details and work that you have to trudge through,” he told Fox News. “It's not as romantic to talk about, but if you're not on top of those details, the whimsical stuff falls apart.”
Don Jon, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, opens on Friday. You can check out the trailer below:
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